Group items tagged

comparative psychology,

animal intelligence

mostly concerns mammals, especially primates, cetaceans, and elephants, as well as dogs, cats, and rodents.

and fish,

began in the late 1950s

John Lilly

other animals do have minds and that humans should approach the study of their cognition accordingly.

bottlenosed dolphins

particularly monkeys

Spatial cognition

The ability to properly navigate and search through the environment is a critical task for many animals.

Research in 2007 shows that chimpanzees in the Fongoli savannah sharpen sticks to use as spears when hunting, considered the first evidence of systematic use of weapons in a species other than humans.

Language

The modeling of human language in animals is known as animal language research.

Consciousness

The sense in which animals can be said to have consciousness or a self-concept has been hotly debated; it is often referred to as the debate over animal minds.

It has been suggested that metacognition in some animals provides some evidence for cognitive self-awareness.[11] The great apes, dolphins, and rhesus monkeys have demonstrated the ability to monitor their own mental states and use an "I don't know" response to avoid answering difficult questions. These species might also be aware of the strength of their memories.

This page was last modified on 26 November 2011 at 11:42.

uch capabilities allow humans to enjoy delicious stories with layers of intrigue and gossip,

humans can commonly extend empathy over time and space

exceptions as a mental illness that afflicts humans and animals alike.

obsessive-compulsive disorder sufferers ritualistically act out the same behavior again and again.

apolsky suggested two reasons not to worry

ne of the few differences between humans and chimps comes from the amount of cell division for brain cells

human behaviors stand out by reaching levels of complexity unseen in any other part of the animal world, according to a neurobiologist

What makes humans special comes in no small part from the sheer quantity of available brain power – at least 300,000 brain cells for each neuron in a fruit fly brain.

She brought a one-year-old African gray parrot she named Alex into her lab to teach him to reproduce the sounds of the English language.

They were simply machines, robots programmed to react to stimuli but lacking the ability to think or feel. Any pet owner would disagree.

many scientists believed animals were incapable of any thought.

controversial.

How, then, does a scientist prove that an animal is capable of thinking—that it is able to acquire information about the world and act on it?

Certain skills are considered key signs of higher mental abilities: good memory, a grasp of grammar and symbols, self-awareness, understanding others' motives, imitating others, and being creative.

chimpanzees use a variety of tools to probe termite mounds and even use weapons to hunt small mammals; dolphins can imitate human postures; the archerfish, which stuns insects with a sudden blast of water, can learn how to aim its squirt simply by watching an experienced fish perform the task.

Chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas have been taught to use sign language and symbols to communicate with us, often with impressive results.

Subscribe to National Geographic magazine »

© 2011 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

All of us solve problems effortlessly and routinely.

We want to see our dogs charm us, appeal to our emotions, imagine they too can suffer and have pity, love and hate and all the rest

our brain parts can be replaced with silicon parts

Thousands of scientists and philosophers over hundreds of years have either recognized this uniqueness of ours or have denied it

Even though we have all of these connections with the biologic world from which we came, and we have in some instances similar mental structures, we are hugely different.